Spending Scaries!

Do they have brothers or sisters? Because they cannot compete with that. Harry Styles for the win, for sure. Listen, spooky season is here. We've been talking about it, but you might have some spending scaries creeping in as well. Financial regrets can haunt Americans year round. We have to know what they are so we can avoid them for the next go around. A new Nerd Wallet survey found 23% of Americans think about their financial regrets at least weekly. So let's talk more about what keeps us up at night and bring in Kimberly Palmer, personal finance expert at NerdWallet once again. Hi, Kimberly. Good morning. Good morning, Steve. Thanks for having me. All right. Financially, what's keeping us up at night? Well, what's pretty incredible is just how many Americans regret financial choices that they've made. We found that 60 percent of Americans say they regret something they've purchased or paid for in the past. And some of the most common ones are things like luxury items, vehicles, vacations. And so it really underscores the fact that it's important to slow down and make these financial choices with thought and consideration because it's just so common to regret them. You know, it's interesting. And we're looking at some of the other ones on the screen. Obviously, if you are in a position where like you're short on money, right, and the bills are coming in and you need them, you're going to go back and you're going to think about everything that you've spent money on in the past. But it's kind of interesting that that people are at least admitting maybe I didn't need to splurge on some of these items in the past or like you said, gambling, you know, that's money that people just wish they had back. Exactly. And it can actually be helpful to take a minute to think about some of those financial regrets, because then we can make different choices in the future. So it's not that we want to dwell on things we wish we'd done differently or feel badly about them, but just use that to change maybe what choices we're making in the future. And I think it's also important to note that some of the regrets that people told us about are things they didn't do. So people regret not starting an emergency fund sooner or not starting to save for retirement sooner. And so that can be helpful information, too, to motivate us to take action. Yeah, I think a lot of people realize that as they get a little bit older and maybe they learn more about finances or they just have more that they can invest or work with. And then they say it's easier than I thought. I probably should have done this a while ago. It comes down to what you have and the knowledge. But Kimberly, the question that I have is, was there anything that people were happy about? Was there anything where people said, you know what, I'm glad I did this with my money? Yes. And actually that is something that stood out too. When we step back and look at the big financial picture. So what have you planned for, for your future financial goals, or what are some of the longer term steps you're taking? People do feel generally satisfied with those long-term financial choices. And so what that really says is that sometimes when we're making spur-of-the-moment decisions, we're at the store and we feel that urge to make an impulse purchase, those are the ones we want to slow down and take 24 hours to think about because we tend to make better choices when we're thinking longer term and planning for the future. So how do you use this now? The end of the year is coming up. And I'm sure if you polled people right before the beginning of the month or the beginning of the year when the rent or the mortgages due, people are going to say, I wish I had a little bit more money when the bills are due. But with the new year coming around, what do you recommend for people now to make sure that they don't find themselves in the same position this time next year? Well, this is actually the perfect time of year to think about this because we're entering the holiday season where we feel so much time pressure, so much urgency to make purchases, especially when we see a sale pop up, for example. We feel like we have to buy right now. And what this study really says is that actually we need to slow down and not feel that pressure. And if we do start feeling that urgency to buy, like we can't take time to think about it, we can do something else instead, you know, go for a walk, put it, put the item in your shopping cart, but don't actually make the purchase for another day or two. So it's really just all about slowing down because we don't want to enter the new year with stress, with additional debt that we wish we didn't have. And so it's the perfect time to really think about all this. Yeah. Refocus. And like we say right there. Face your financial fears, know what you're in for, and find a way to be better next year. Kimberly, it's always a pleasure. Thank you very much. Kimberly Palmer, a personal finance expert at NerdWallet. You can go there for more financial questions, advice, information, all at nerdwallet.com. All right, let's switch gears completely. Let's head out to Annie Mae. She is finding her way through.